While there are currently no plans for Disney to give Cars fans a fourth movie in the franchise, Owen Wilson has brought his much loved character of Lightning McQueen back to screens for what could be the last time in a way that you would never find on Disney+. The Loki star was making his hosting debut on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and with so much talk about how certain films would look with an R-rated twist, Wilson gave his fans an idea of what an adult only version of Cars 4 could look like.
Owen Wilson appeared in a sound booth for the sketch, acting out the part as though he were recording for a genuine movie appearance, and took direction for the recording from Mickey Day and Punkie Johnson. As you would expect, the script appeared to be quite run of the mill for the first part, but as it progressed there was clearly nothing family friendly about this iteration of the supercharged racing car. The innuendo and adult comedy that followed is something that would get any Disney scriptwriter banned for life from ever writing for the company again, but of course while Wilson acted like this didn’t really want to take the character down this particular route, the quick waft of a contract under his nose and it was a green light for the first NSFW appearance of Lightning McQueen.
In addition to Owen Wilson, who will next star in Disney’s Haunted Mansion remake, the sketch also saw Larry the Cable Guy joining the reading, jumping in to help Wilson “get more in character” by having his buddy to spar off as the voice of Mater. While we have seen a couple of Cars shorts released over the years, Larry said in April that he would love to come back as the character again, and thanks to Disney+ there is nothing to say that we won’t be seeing more from the franchise sometime in the future – just maybe not exactly as seen on SNL.
“Well, I’ll tell you what I don’t know, but if you hear, let me know and I’ll call Owen,” Larry told Pop Culture earlier this year. “Because that’s what we’re trying to figure out. You know what, I don’t know. That was a fun thing to do. Obviously it’s one of the only Pixar movies [that’s] got its own theme park. I just feel that they probably know that they’ve got this Disney thing up and going. You would think if you put in a billion-dollar theme park, you probably got to keep putting fuel in the tank. You would think. So I don’t know.”
“And if they do do it, then we’ll do another one and I’ll be happy with that,” he continued. “It was a part of my career that is really awesome ’cause I have kids. When I’m out of here and my kids are old, they can always hear [their dad’s] voice on some kind of a little cartoon. I mean it’s just a really neat thing, and I’m just very blessed and thankful that they asked me to do it.”
The Cars trilogy grossed over $1.4 billion at the box office and is still one of Disney’s popular franchises. With numerous books, toys, video games and more out there based on the movies still proving big selling points come Christmas time, it is surely only a matter of time before we see the Cars team getting back together for real. The last movie to be released was Cars 3 in 2017.